High deductibles, unexpected hospital bills produce sticker shock

Aileen Stalvey says she was "born to shop," but shopping for surgery left her with a bill from Baptist Hospital for more than twice the amount she’d been quoted.Her quandary is one that more will face as employers increasingly switch to high-deductible health plans—some of which require workers to spend as much as $5,000 before filing an insurance claim. These plans are intended to lower overall health spending by making consumers more cost-conscious, but experts say hospitals and physician practices have been slow to embrace the changes to make this paradigm work.